Single gal balancing my way to mortgage freedom!

savingholmes

Well done on getting a new lodger so fast. 

You're making great progress on OPs and savings. It seems to be coming together well for you.

frankersBri

Another new year - they do come around fast! A very welcome week off work, even if I did catch the horrible cold going around. Wasn't the flu thankfully, so at least I felt ok apart from the coughing/sneezing/sore throat/blocked nose. Almost can breathe through both nostrils again, so that's nice! I hope everyone had a pleasant festive/NY period - back to reality if you're anything like me with a 6am alarm this morning!

January 2023 summary

Current mortgage balance: £161,978.31
Savings offset: £2,364.66
Net outstanding: £159,613.65

Total OPs in 2022: £2,784.39


Upon reflection, I'm pretty happy with how 2022 went. Between my regular payments and OP's I paid £11.5k off the mortgage, which is excellent! I did not hit my original OP target, but that's ok. I still made OP's that feel significant to me and have moved me in the right direction to get rid of the mortgage sooner!

I've started the year with £300 being added to the OP savings pot to get me on my way. I've set a £4k target on the MFW main thread, which likely will be a stretch, but it's a good motivator. 


2023 goals

I've set myself a few goals across finance/health/wellbeing/house categories. I probably should do some personal development/work goals but I've not got my head in that game yet!

Finance:

• Pay off my student loan (on track for February 2023)
• Save £6k towards sailing sabbatical (£2k/£6k)
• Pay £13.5k off mortgage (inc savings offset) (£1,207/£13.5k)

House:

• Finish dining room (aka, clear out the "DIY corner")
• Repaint bathroom ceiling & walls
• Paint upstairs landing

Wellbeing:

• Cook 1 new recipe from my cookbooks per month (0/12)
• Read 24 books (0/24)

Health:

• Attain a 120kg deadlift
• Run 1 mile per day on average (0/365)
• Run 5k PB
• Run 10k PB

savingholmes

Good luck with your goals. Sounds like you are doing well.

frankersBri

 

Goal #1 for the year achieved. Student loan PAID OFF! Just called and made the final payment and cancelled my direct debit, woop woop! 12.5 years after graduating I've finally paid it back. I'm kind of glad the SLC website is so poor that I can't see how much I actually repaid in total, but it does feel good to get rid of that monthly payment. That's a £351 monthly direct debit gone, which is fantastic!

That's my little interim update, no major moves on OP's or other goals really. Other than I am doing a 10km training plan and have signed up for a race in May to try and achieve it. Will do a proper update at the start of Feb once I've been paid etc. 

Merlin's_Beard

Congratulations!  That's a huge monthly amount freed up for other things.

LeighofMar

Celebration time!!!

South_coast

Excellent work on clearing the loan 😀! All payrises and bonuses are now your own (well, and the taxman's 😅)

frankersBri

Thanks all! 
Haha, south_coast: that pesky taxman is a greedy one!

In other surprising good news, Ryanair have emailed me to tell me I'm due 250 Euro compensation for a delayed flight I took in summer 2018. So 4.5 years later, good to get that  But obviously, free money is much appreciated!

anxiousnow

I've just got rid of my Plan 1 SL too. For years I thought it wasn't worth it, instead saving the money in the best interest rate accounts that I could. However, now the rate is at 4 per cent, and having calculated that even paying the minimum I'd still pay it off before I'm 65 (just with a load of interest), I decided to pay it off, 20 years after graduation! 

Not sure how I feel about it as I'd have loved to have had one of the ones that get written off, but I suppose it's a milestone.

South_coast

Better to have a milestone than a millstone 😀 

My BF still thinks I shouldn't have paid mine off as it would have been written off - even after I showed him the T&Cs confirming that it would run until 65. The messaging now is so strong that it will just get written off that people don't realise there are folk out there with ones that will dog them for their entire working lives 🙁!